Massa takes Singapore pole.

Felipe Massa snatched a last-gasp pole position from under the nose of F1 title rival Lewis Hamilton as the pair went head-to-head in qualifying for the inaugural Singapore Grand Prix.

After his narrow escape at the end of Q2, Hamilton immediately bounced back to the front of the pack, only losing provisional pole to Massa as the ten-car field completed its first runs, and then suffering the same fate right at the end, as, having lost P2 to Kimi Raikkonen, he improved his personal best, then had to listen as the McLaren team informed that Massa had turned in a stunning effort to go six-tenths faster still.

The title contenders will thus line-up on the front row, as they did in Valencia where Massa won, with Raikkonen and the hitherto relatively anonymous Robert Kubica on row two. BMW Sauber crept quietly up the order in the final session, with Nick Heidfeld only losing fifth spot to Heikki Kovalainen after the chequered flag had fallen.

Italian GP winner Sebastian Vettel was unable to hang on to a provisional fourth, slipping to seventh, where he will start ahead of Timo Glock and the two Williams-Toyotas of Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima.

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